On September 24, 1971, during La Tavernetta's first year, Newsday food editor Barbara Rader opened her review with, “The chef does the cooking, but the owner’s mother bakes the cheesecake.”
Olympia Arpaia had brought the recipe from Naples the year before. She spoke no English, and she demonstrated it for Rader in the same small kitchen where Donatella’s crib sat beside the dishwasher: ricotta strained through a food mill, candied citron and orange water, a slice of lemon peel steeped in the pastry cream and lifted out. Here is her recipe, 55 years later.
From the September 24, 1971 Newsday food pages. Quantities exactly as printed; directions condensed for clarity.
Base
5 5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup 1/2 sugar
2 tbsp. 2 all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. 1 1/2 vanilla
1/4 tsp. 1/4 cinnamon
2 tbsp. 2 orange water*
1 1/2 cups 1 1/2 milk
- Pasty cream
2 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup 3/4 sugar
1 tbsp. 1 flour
1 tsp. 1 vanilla
1 large 1 slice of lemon peel
1 cup 1 milk
- To finish
1/4 cup 1/4 finely chopped citron
4 4 maraschino cherries, finely chopped
1/2 large 1/2 orange, grated
1 1 lemon, grated
1 15 oz. 1 container ricotta cheese, strained through a food mill
1 tbsp. 1 rum (optional)
fine dry bread crumbs, for the pan
Directions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the 5 egg yolks with the ½ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1½ teaspoons vanilla, the cinnamon, orange water, and 1½ cups milk; beat about 5 minutes at medium speed.
- Set the 5 whites aside in a separate bowl.
- In a heavy saucepan, combine the 2 egg yolks, ¾ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the lemon peel, and 1 cup milk.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick, about 10 minutes.
- Discard the lemon peel and cool the cream over ice water.
- When cool, stir it into the first mixture.
- Add the citron, cherries, grated orange and lemon rind, and ricotta, mixing well.
- Beat the reserved whites until stiff and fold them in carefully.
- Add the rum.
- Pour into a large ovenproof glass baking dish (13½ by 8¾ inches) or a 9-by-12-inch baking pan, greased and dusted heavily with bread crumbs, excess shaken off.
- Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 1 hour, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool thoroughly before serving.
Notes
- * “Orange water” as printed — orange flower water.
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